Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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La Vie de Smith Nelson
My first brickfilm. Technically, it is not finished since I have yet to make Chapter 4, but I think it stands pretty well on its own.
The characters, universe, and voiceover text are not my own creation.
Hey there.
Alright so don't take this the wrong way, but I did find several problems with this film now firstly I'll start off with the beginning the title/intro is way to long it goes for about 40 seconds and there is honestly no need for it to go so long try and shorten it in the future, just put your logo in the intro and then begin your film. Secondly the VO is way to loud to the point it was actually bothering my ears these arnt serious issues because they can be easily fixed with post production.
Now onto the animation, the animation was very choppy and as a first attempt I can not blame you we all start were you started so don't take it the wrong way. Also there was to much light flicker you may have been filming during the day and if this is the case, I would suggest you avoid EVER filming in daylight as the light frequently changes throughout the day and thus the reason for light flicker only film at night unless you can block out the windows and any possible sunlight from entering.
Also seeing it's a foreign language I do not know anything that was said which can be difficult for a lot of members on here, as a large majority of us speak English.
Don't give up and take my criticism and anyone else as a positive thing to strive to do better and with practice you can only get better.
Remember to work on these things:
Light Flicker
Lowering the voice
Fixing up animation
Working on smoother animation
If you can't speak English put in subtitles for others.
Shorter intro
Work in dark areas, or close windows and block out sunlight
Keep Practicing
And most of all don't give up.
-Rogue
Last edited by rogue (March 15, 2014 (03:44am))
Thanks for the input! The production was kind of sloppy because I didn't have much time and I figured it would be a waste of time to work too hard on my first film.
The light flicker was mostly due to a problem with my webcam: sometimes I forgot to set the exposure, and I didn't realize until too late how bad it looked.
The voice level was high because I wanted the narration to be audible over the music. I guess I should adjust the volume dynamically from now on...
As for the language, you may have noticed by now that I actually speak fluent English. The film was produced in French because I had originally intended to just share it locally. I added subtitles for the last video I made (which was just Part 1 of this film), but it was long and tedious. I'll try to get around to it, though.
The long intro was part of the "mockumentary" aspect of the film. It's basically like a fake television biopic, and none of the production companies named in the credits are real.
The only criticism that kind of bothers me is the "very choppy" animation. I shot at around 10 FPS most of the time, and while that is low, especially these days, it's still full-motion and not a slideshow.
Technical aspects aside, what did you think of the film on an artistic level?
UPDATE: Currently subtitling.
Last edited by serpinium (March 15, 2014 (06:04am))
Hey there Serpinium
You are welcome,
You have a good point not many people like to work hard especially on a first film/project your always to excited to want to finish it off and put to much effort into it and its okay, you have that right as it being your first film/project and all, and the excitement is waiting to burst out to see what you have made.
yes that is true expose can be a problem have you tried to manually fix this? You can normally do this by turning off the exposure I don't know what kind of webcam you have but normally there is a button you can click to turn it off, and handle it manually to leave it the same throughout the film.
I understand what you mean when you say you wanted the voice narration to be higher than the music but their are different methods to doing this one way would be by decreasing the pitch on the music tho once again I do not know what software you use, but I believe your main problem for this would have been your microphone due to the fact it wasn't producing very good audio.
Yes I do notice you write rather fluently if you also speak English fluently this is also a bonus and is encouraged for this site!
The only criticism that kind of bothers me is the "very choppy" animation. I shot at around 10 FPS most of the time, and while that is low, especially these days, it's still full-motion and not a slideshow.
Unfortunately brother in this forum, and something to always remember as a brickfilming principle anything below 15FPS is normally noted as choppy animation. It isn't to insult you or say your work is bad however the rule of thumb normally suggests brickfilmers to film at 15FPS. But people that are beginning and new to brickfilming are also noted to do 12FPS this is to get into the technique for more smoother animation and as you get better and progress in time most brickfilmers will stick to 15FPS this is why it is recommended to do your films at this rate.
On an Artistic Level judging the animation I can see you have basic knowledge of stop motion which is always a good start some people when they do there first film don't have a clue what to do, you seem to have a basic idea which is good I believe that if you work on your audio and try to film at a higher frame rate than you could definitely have potential in future films.
But it is vital you continue to practice and if this is what you want to continue that's great try and put more frames into your characters allowing the animation to run at a smoother rate fix up your light flicker and manually adjust the exposure to fix up your light flicker problem and bring out your next film hopefully in English.
I wish you luck for future projects and I'll look out for your videos!
-Rogue
Thanks again.
I now have a proper camera, but I can't use it for a real film until I get a good tripod. I did make one test film https://www.youtube.com/w … 9IBuyHoBGg with it though, shooting from the ground. I know the depth of field is off, especially in the last shot, but it was just a test. Since then I've been learning the camera's features a little more.
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